Allowing Musharraf to file papers amounts to evade rule of law: Rabbani

Former chairman Senate Raza Rabbani said on Friday that rule of law shall evade Pakistan if former president Pervez Musharraf is allowed to file his nomination papers in the forthcoming general election. In a statement issued here, he said it is a matter of record that the special court trying General Musharraf (retd) for treason on May 11, 2016 under Article 6 of the Constitution, 1973, declared him an absconder.
"He [Musharraf] fraudulently misled the court on the pretext of ill-health and has since then been absconding the country," he regretted. The Special Anti-Terrorism Court has declared Musharraf, an accused of the apex court judges' detention case, an absconder on February 10, 2017, he said, adding in the murder trial of late Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, the trial court declared Musharraf as an absconder on August 31, 2017.
He said it is a matter of grave concern that a person who has been declared an absconder and whose warrants of arrest have been issued by various courts in the country has been allowed to file his nomination papers conditionally. "It appears those who abrogated or held the Constitution in abeyance and are fugitive from justice are at a premium in Pakistan," he lamented.
The reaction from Rabbani came a day after the Supreme Court conditionally allowed former military president to file his nomination papers. The court also summoned him to appear before the court on June 13, and also assured him that he would not be arrested upon arrival in the country.